The Power of the Bonds
by helioslude
Summary: This is my first fanfic. Matthew O'Mara was minding his own business on his first day of summer vacation, when a Myotismon attacks him in broad daylight! Others intervene to save him, but if Digimon exist and are in the world, doesn't that mean something is horribly wrong with the worlds? This is an OC story and I am terrible at summaries. So enjoy! Updates will come sparaticly
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: as much as I wished I owned Digimon, I don't, because if we did we would have another season of Tamers by now… The only characters that I own are Matthew O'Mara, Wepmon, and any future OC's.

I was 180 cm tall at the time, with bright hazel eyes and short brown hair. My skin was a light tan and I had a mixture of a plump and a muscular build. I preferred my clothing to be practical and not to get in the way, so I usually wore a t-shirt with a design on it and either jeans or cargo shorts depending on the season.

It all started on the last day of finals, it was a simple day, just art and one of my electives, there was not a cloud in the sky, and when school ended I drove home, but of course what fun would there be if it was an average, typical day. At the intersection, just outside of my high school, the traffic lights were going crazy, flickering back and forth from red to green to yellow, people got out of their cars to see what was wrong, that was when I noticed the white fog that spawned in the middle of the intersection. There was only one thing that I could think of, _a digital field_ I thought, my mind racing with the implications, and I did the one thing that human partners with daikon figure out day one _**NEVER**_ to do, I walked in without a weapon or a plan for that matter, trying to satisfy my curiosity. The field was being inspected by several other people when a scream was heard from within. The bystander effect took hold of the crowd, and no one acted, with the exception of myself. If anything, it strengthened by resolve because that scream belonged to one of my classmates, one of the few who even watched at least some Digimon anime, although it was only mentioned once in an off-hand comment. I pulled off my sunglasses when I entered the field, just in time to identify the outline of a particular vampire (take a guess)

"OY!" he turned towards me and away from his initial prey, "Myotismon, how and why are you here?" I yelled hoping to give my classmate enough time to run, I glanced at her and jerked my head to the side.

"Well, someone who knows about Digimon, and not only that, but about me personally." He stood up slowly as he said this, clearly in no rush, and said to my classmate, Alicia, who was cowering with her back to the roof of her car that was turned over on to its side, "stay here darling, I will just be a moment." He then turned to face me head on, he adapted his look from the anime to be more of a businessman in a suit and tie as opposed to the average cloak and mask. His read eyes shone with a lack of compassion and were full of bloodlust. "There are not enough of you in this world, as to why I'm here, these are my hunting grounds, and as to how, your guess is as good as mine."

With that he lunged, pouncing towards me with his fangs barred, I looked him straight in the eyes and I felt a moment of pity as the world slowed, my adrenaline through the roof, I leaned to the side, dogging the pounce by centimeters. I brought my elbow down onto his head, and my knee into his throat, hopping that that would be enough to at least stun him, he hit the asphalt hard as I brought down my heal in an axe-kick into where his kidney should be. Only then did it occur to me that I picked a fight with an ultimate level Digimon (at least it was during the day so his power was about a mid-champion level), I tried to back off then, hoping that I would have at least knocked him out cold because I put everything I had into those strikes.

"Foolish boy, you thought that you could just hit the king of the undead Digimon with a few pointed strikes and that would take me down!?" Myotismon rose from where I left him, I was trying to help Alicia by getting her out of the digital field, hoping that it was not too traumatic for her. He pounced again this time not intending to miss his prey again.

"GET DOWN!" a voice came from behind us, I grabbed Alicia and dropped to the ground and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw Myotismon, impaled through the chest with a glaive, which was being held by a Digimon about a meter and a half tall, and was dressed like a ninja, he had a very defensive stance while holding the spear, like one would use against charging Calvary.

"Who are you?" Myotismon said as loud as he could, which was a loud whisper, coughing up blood that split into particles that were spread in the wind.

"I am Wepmon, the vanguard of the weak and back-up for the just and honorable, all of these were demonstrated by your attempted quarry…" he spit into Myotismon's face, "and violated by you, Fire Lance!" The tip of Wepmon's glaive exploded into flame that quickly enveloped the dying Myotismon and when there was only particles left he let them scatter in the wind, "I hope that you found satisfaction in this life and may you be just in the next." This prayer left a symbol on the ground, an emblem that had three leaves going away from each other with a circle around them (the symbol of Tokugawa clan from the warring states period). Something hit me right then, Myotismon was in a suit, not the traditional style, indicating that he had been here for a while at least; I look up at Wepmon's back.

"You are the one who just came though from the other side right?" I asked in a slightly shaky tone, he turned around to face me and that is when his glaive turned into energy and went back into his body. His eyes were almonds of sky blue, no pupils or iris, just blue.

"Yes, that was me, I am sorry if I caused a bit of a shock to you and your friend when I came through by the way." He bowed when he said this, a deep bow of a genuine apology.

"Well you did save our lives, so there is no need for that, but the field is diminishing so you may want to hide or at least get into my car quickly." The fog was burning off fast, so I unlocked my car and walked Alicia out, she still had not said a thing, she was clearly shaken by what had happened, and once I saw Wepmon in my car, and the digital field burnt off, I called the police describing a car crash in the intersection. It was a spectacular sight, there were three cars each blocking at least two lanes in the four-way intersection, causing traffic chaos, eventually everything was cleared and those affected were interviewed as well as comforted. I got back into my car where Wepmon was sitting in the front seat.

"Maybe you could make yourself a little bit less conspicuous, we are getting a lot of stares?" I asked politely as one child in the back seat of a minivan looked over and squealed at recognizing something was not quite right with my passenger.

"Sure, I have never tried this before so bear with me," he looked up as if accessing trying to remember something, at least that is what I thought he was doing, I could not tell due to his lack of pupils or irises. His skin began to vibrate and he suddenly looked like Thomas from Digimon Data Squad.

I looked at him and said "Dude, lose the uniform, try Marcus at the end of the season."

"Alright" he repeated the process, lo' and behold he looked like Marcus, "is that better?"

"Yes, that is much better," I pulled into Marymoor park and parked in one of the lots, "now, I have a few questions for you, the first one being, how much is known about the human world there?"

"Where? The digital world? Well, about a month we heard news about the Ukraine protests-"

"So you know about the anime?" I interrupted hungrily.

"Yes, and all of the fan fiction and theories surrounding it etc. is that sufficient to answer your first question?"

"Yes. Now my second question is do you know what is driving Digimon into the real world? Is there a war, or maybe a plague?"

"Well, there is a little of both, the sovereign are bickering _again_, Ebonwumon and Azulongmon seek to keep the digital world as is and focus on the problems with the demon lords as well as the dark masters, whom I assume you know. While Baihumon and Zhuqiaomon argue that to deal with those problems we need more power, i.e. we need to conquer another world with its own problems so that we can deal with the problems in the digital world. The east and the south are the extremists in these ideas while the other two are a more moderate side to their argument. There is a plague that has started to cut swathes out of the dark zone's populace, it has said to take down ultimates, and even one of the seven demon lords-"

This made me pause for a moment, a disease that can take down a demon lord, "which lord and did their data remain after they died?"

"It was Daemon who died, and from what I heard from my friends in dark zone is that his data was not absorbed, but it didn't dissipate either, it just sat there until one day it was gone, up in smoke and into thin air.

I leaned back into my seat, "that is a scary thought, the demon lord of wrath taken down by a virus… that is some potent stuff," I paused to turn off the engine, "we live in interesting times."

"Indeed." Wepmon agreed from the passenger seat. There was an awkward silence between us before I got out of the car. "Where are you going?" he asked

"I figured that since we're in the park we may as well sit under a tree and to do that I need to pay for my parking space." I explained, "Come on there are a few that have excellent shade nearby." Wepmon got out of the car and began to look around from what I could tell at the time he was dumbfounded, staring at all of the greenery.

He whistled, "There are so many plants!" he exclaimed, clearly wishing to inspect more of the surrounding area.

"I take it there is not a lot of green where you come from."

"Not on the level I lived, the only green you could see would be the occasional cactus!"

"Sounds a lot like New Mexico." I replied having been there during spring break, I finished paying and gestured him to follow me, we walked through a grassy field to a short tree with a wide canopy, the sun speckled the shaded ground underneath, I sat down and leaned against the trunk, when Wepmon suddenly tensed, "How many?" I asked

"There are three, two are high rookies and the third is a mid-level." He responded with tension in his voice.

"New or old?"

"All of them are old; I can't tell if they are fighting or whether or not they have humans with them."

"Just when I got comfortable," I mumbled before standing "which way?"

"To the south, moving in our direction."

"Shall we wait for them?"

"We? Last I checked I saved your life from Myotismon and you took me to this park before I could cause a scene, I am fairly sure there we are not partners, hell, I don't even know your name yet!" He exclaimed.

"I understand that, but I would like to help you if I can." I countered.

He thought about this for a moment, "well, you did take on a Myotismon and managed to survive without a weapon or a plan so I suppose a rookie shouldn't be too difficult should they be hostile." He gave me a look that said something along the lines of 'if you pick this fight and screw up, don't expect me to save you.'

"Name's Matthew, by the way, Matthew O'mara." I extended a hand.

He delivered a firm handshake "Nice to be formally introduced… We should wait, they are still coming this way, presumably for me, and they all have partners near-by."

"Well then, how far away are they?" I asked while I sat down again with my back to the tree.

"About one kilometer out, and closing, we should see them anytime now." As good as a Digimon's senses are; they cannot tell what species of Digimon are near them without visual confirmation.

"Just lean back against the tree, we're in a mostly open field, so it's not like they can ambush us." I saw a little bit of tension leave his body as he sat against the trunk of the tree.

About 200 meters out we saw the six of them running towards us, a Terriermon, sitting on his human's shoulders, a boy, who looked like a high school freshman, about 150 cm tall and had an angular face, he was muscular, and it appeared as though he had studied martial arts in the past. To his right was a boy who appeared to be about the same age, though just a little bit taller, a pair of welding goggles rested on his forehead, preventing his long, tan hair from falling over his face, his face was less angular and next to him was a short red lizard, that I recognized as a Shoutmon. He had a girl to his right who had her bright red hair up in a ponytail; she wore jeans, a white shirt with a red, broken-heart design on the front, her partner was a tall yellow fox, Renamon.

"Well, this is interesting…" I muttered to myself.

"What?"

"The girl I recognize as a Krista, she is a sophomore and one year younger than I am, she's known for being intelligent, witty, at times headstrong, and determined to be the best. She denied that she knew anything about Digimon when I asked her during the year, though she did tend to wonder off from time to time." I explained to Wepmon. When I turned in their direction, I realized that they were down a Digimon; my eyes widened, "Down!" I tackled Wepmon, as a crater appeared where he was standing just seconds before.

"Well, they aren't giving us much of a choice are they?" Wepmon said as he materialized his glaive out of red plasma.

"OY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING KRISTA!" I yelled before we dodged another Diamond Storm.

"Rock and Roller!" I saw Shoutmon flying towards me with a microphone in hand as a staff, I jumped to the side while the attack slammed into the ground, I stepped hard on the staff before delivering a thrust kick to his face, forcing him to let go of the microphone. Using one foot, I kicked it up into my hands.

"Bit short, but it will do," I muttered while taking an experimental swing, I looked up to see the Terriermon rushing forward with a head-butt; I thrust out the mic to intercept, halting the attack, barely. Jumping away from my opponents, I risked a glance at the battle between Renamon and Wepmon, The two were locked in a power struggle, the strength and range advantage that Wepmon possessed versus the speed of Renamon, _a strike in the wrong place and that glaive is history_ I thought before refocusing on my battle. They decided to rush me with their attacks; Shoutmon summoned another mic while Terriermon was prepping a Terrier tornado. I rushed for the little rabbit-dog but was forced to deal with Shoutmon's downward strike towards my head. _They aren't trying to harm me, otherwise I would have been blasted into oblivion with ranged attacks…_ I reasoned.

While trying to gain traction against the duo, when I heard the words "Digi-modify, training-bracers!" _CRAP!_ I yelled mentally before rolling to the side, it was a trap. I assumed that their goal was to restrain me so that they could gang up on Wepmon.

"You guys think that I am possessed!?" I yelled at them while I threw the mic at the bracers that were being flung towards my body, the devices met in the air, the mic being rendered useless by the bracers, which wrapped around it.

"Don't listen to him!" I heard Krista yell, "That is exactly what Wepmon wants you to think!" I took a glance and saw Wepmon take a hard hit, and land against the trunk of the tree, I rushed over to him, hoping to protect him from being deleted, I was almost there when I heard a chorus of attacks:

"Fiery Fastball!"

"Diamond Storm!"

"Bunny Blast!"

Hoping I could make it, I dove in front of the attacks. I felt a feeling of strength surge within me.

_I hope that this works!_ I thought hastily "WARGREYMON BRAVE SHEILD!" suddenly I felt my arms shift and harden into an orange shield with the crest of courage on it. The attacks were absorbed by the shield before my arms shifted back.

"What just happened?" A voice that I identified as Wepmon came from inside of my head.

"No idea, but apparently we share a body now." I responded mentally.

When the smoked cleared, I saw the three humans had a horrified look upon their faces, like my very existence was something unnatural. The Digimon tensed and waited for their partners to react.

Shoutmon decided that he had enough of waiting because he turned to his partner and said "It's time we got serious!"

"Right!" the google-head responded, Shoutmon glowed as his tamer shouted, "Digi-modify! Rize Greymon Trident Revolver!"

_How confident are you with Tonfa?_ I asked Wepmon.

"One of my favorites!" he replied, his voice conveying what needed to be done.

"Tonfa!" We Shouted in unison and two pieces of red plasma materialized into a tonfa in each hand.

_Ready?_ I inquired.

"Always."

The three Digimon tried again with help from their tamers, Renamon now had Musyamon's sword and Terriermon had digivolved to Gargomon.

They tried to rush foreward with Renamon as a vanguard Gargomon providing support with his chain guns while Shoutmon was at the back waiting for his shot. Renamon tried for a horizontal slash, but was a little too slow, we jumped over the swing and delivered several strikes to her back with the tonfa and finished with a blow to the back of her head. Now that I moved away from Renamon, Gargomon began his attack.

"Gargo pellets!" he yelled before firing his guns, the barrels on his arms spinning to chamber each new round. Using our newfound speed, we dodged around the bullets, moving in a zigzag pattern. When we actually got to Gargomon we struck him several times in the chest before knocking him out with a powerful strike over the head. That left Shoutmon who was lining up his shot as we moved away from Gargomon as to not risk harming him.

_How much are you willing to bet that brave shield should take a shot from that revolver?_

"A fair amount, but it could still collapse on us…"

_So a 70 percent chance of success?_

"Yes"

_Let's go!_ We started to sprint toward Shoutmon, the command on the tip of my tongue should he fire.

"TRIDENT REVOLVER!" He yelled.

"Brave Shield!" I gave the command as I felt my arms strengthen and expand into the shield. I felt no shock, and that concerned me.

_A feint?_ I suggested to Wepmon.

"Possibly, the one problem with the brave shield is that we can't see past it, making us vulnerable from the rear…"

_We need a plan now… they are clever so we need a smaller shield and a weapon, maybe a lance._ I conveyed the image of what I meant via the mental link.

"We can do that, as that should not only give us more mobility than brave shield, but it will also give us some offensive capabilities." He responded, catching what I intended.

"Lancer!" we yelled the command. The Brave Shield turned back into plasma before becoming a smaller shield with the Tokugawa crest in gold on the front, while the rest morphed our right arm into a long, silver lance.

"Trident Revolver!" We heard Shoutmon yell from above us, we saw the glint coming from a nearby tree. There was an explosion as the revolver shot we ducked behind the shield. The world suddenly went white as the bullets hit the shield, I could our body flung back, tumbling before crashing hard into a tree. It felt like I had been chewed up and then spit out by a massive beast.

_We should have broken at least something_. I thought

"Ugh…" was the response, apparently, Wepmon had taken more of the blast than I did because he was on the verge of consciousness. While I could control and move our body, it was without any of the benefits the fusion had provided. The tree that we rammed into fell over behind us, its bark was splintered and the stump had several large cracks in it.

I saw the tamers and their partners waiting for the smoke to clear, they apparently had not noticed that we were flung away from the blast. In a last ditch attempt to save our skins I tried to replicate what Wepmon did earlier with changing his appearance. I attempted to see what I looked like in my mind's eye and forced myself to become that. It was extraordinarily painful; it felt like my skin was being ripped off like a massive Band-Aid. I nearly passed out, and I am fairly sure that I screamed my head off. When this was all said and done, I saw Krista kneeling next to me, and the rest of them standing; all of them had their eyes' closed and their heads' bowed, like they were praying.

I raised my eyebrows and said "I am not dead you know…" They all jumped, clearly startled at my sudden speech.

"DEMON!" yelled the boy with the goggles while his partner Shoutmon summoned his mic to hit me over the head.

"God damn-" I didn't even get to finish my sentence, before he swung, knocking me out cold.

**Hope you enjoyed it! There will be more in the future when I can get it there. If you have the time please Review. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Power of the Bonds**

**Chapter 2**

**DISCLAIMER: as much as I wished I owned Digimon, I don't, because if we did we would have another season of Tamers by now… The characters that I own are Matthew O'Mara, Wepmon, and all of the other OC's.**

**Hello! Welcome to chapter 2, this chapter will be from the perspective of Krista.**

When this story takes place, I was 165 cm tall and had fair, white skin. My bright red hair was up in a ponytail; I wore jeans, a white shirt with a red, broken-heart design on the front. As to how I met Renamon… that is for another time.

Matthew was just knocked out by Shoutmon after he spoke, and I was pissed. "DAMNIT SHOUTMON!" I yelled at Travis, "He was fine before you knocked him out again!"

"Well excuse me for thinking that he died from the fusion with that thing!" Travis countered, clearly flustered with me, "it's not like we killed him…" there was an awkward silence "you didn't kill him, right?" he asked Shoutmon.

"It wasn't my intent…" his partner tried to explain.

"Intent means bugger all." Renamon said in a low tone of voice, "weren't they just sitting against that tree?" she gestured to the fallen tree.

"Well, he is still breathing so that is a plus, but now we have a bigger problem… we have an unconscious man in the middle of a field and can't just leave him here until he comes to." Seth commented.

"Momentai, we'll figure something out." Added Terriermon from his tamer's shoulders.

"That phrase has become a trademark with your species as of late…" I muttered.

"It's a good principle I must say" Seth returned.

_Now what?_ I thought everyone else was thinking the same thing because there was an awkward silence.

"Let's try and figure out our options." Travis suggested.

"Well, we could try and take him with one of us…" Seth muttered.

"There's an idea, at least until he recovers." I said.

"So who is the best candidate?" Travis asked, frowning.

"Well, my parents won't be home this weekend, so I suppose that I could take him..." I thought about the logistics for a moment, "I have a learners permit so I could take his car to where I live." I said as I searched his pockets, "bingo!" I exclaimed while I pulled out his car keys.

"Here, we will help you take him to his car." Said Travis.

"I can help as well." Added Seth.

"Thanks." I gave an air-curtsy.

After we found and loaded his still unconscious ass into the car, we split and set up a meeting for midday tomorrow. My house wasn't too far from the park and it was a simple drive that I had practiced before. My abode was a home on Ames Lake, where we had a lakefront property. There was a large garden of flowers in the front going uphill to the road. There was a bit of gravel as a way for cars to get out of the narrow driveway. The front of the house was beige and made out of a wood composite. I parked the car facing out so that it would be easier to leave and went inside with Renamon helping me carry Matthew.

"We should probably lay him down somewhere…" Renamon said when they got into the front room. The room split into two hallways and one open arch going to the living room, inside of the living room there was a green sofa, a leather armchair, and a dark green rocking chair, all facing a wide screen television.

"Let's put him down on the sofa." I suggested.

"Right." Renamon agreed. It took some effort, but we managed it. He didn't even stir through the movement. I sighed, and sat down in the rocking chair to turn on the TV. The sound echoed through the empty home. After an hour, I rose from my seat, stretching my legs; Renamon moved into the backyard and was sleeping in the grass.

"Hey, Renamon!" she glanced up towards the deck, "Want anything?" She just shook her head and went back to sleep. "I will take that as a no then." When I went back inside my house, I saw one of Matthew's eyes flicker open, he quickly shut them again. "Shoutmon and Travis aren't here ya' know."

"Oh thank the Sovereign," he muttered, rubbing his head where a nasty bruise was beginning to appear. "Where am I?"

"In my home on Ames Lake." I explained, "You want something to drink?"

"Sure, got any root beer?"

"My mom usually keeps a little in the fridge." I said, walking towards the kitchen. I grabbed two bottles of Frostie vanilla root beer, and handed one to Matthew and took a sip of mine.

"Nice choice, so why am I here?" he asked after taking a draught from the bottle.

"Well, you were possessed by a Digimon and then proceeded to hold your own against two digimon, and you seemed to know our strategies, and reacted accordingly." I paused trying to recount the events of earlier. "You then dove in front of the wild one before we could kill it. You then fused with the damn thing and suddenly was able to defeat every one of our partners without deleting them, only knocking them out. You saw right through Shoutmon's feint and changed from the brave shield to a weapon set similar to Gallantmon-"

"As I recall Shoutmon fired Trident Revolver, and we ducked behind out shield, not exactly prepared for the force of the blast, we were flung away, knocking over a tree." He interrupted

"We thought you were dead, completely consumed by the Digimon. That's why when we heard you screaming in pain we didn't know what to do." I hate to admit it, but I broke down a little bit here.

"Whoa, it's okay, I am alive and well, minus a couple aches and pains." He comforted me with those soothing words.

"Thanks," I said regaining my composure; his eyes widened "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing…," he said as he got up and took a couple of steps before grasping his head with both hands.

"It is clearly something!" I jumped up to help him.

"No, stay away! Hopefully this goes well." He grimaced and closed his eyes, concentrating very hard.

"Why should I stay away?!" I exclaimed as a bright light flooded the room. Where Matthew had been standing, was two different people. One was Matthew while the other was dressed in all black, his skin was metallic gold, and his eyes were sky blue almonds and on his back was the symbol of the Tokugawa clan. Both of them then fell down unconscious, again. Renamon jumped up onto the deck and walked inside.

"What the hell happened?" she muttered while monitoring the Digimon that spawned out of Matthew.

Krista didn't care, she just ran over to him and saw the same symbol that was on the wild one's back on the backside of Matthew's right hand, branded permanently in black. He stirred and looked up

"That was extremely painful." He muttered before rolling over to lie on his back.

"I thought skin shifting was painful, but two conscious in one body… and then forcing them to split…" The Digimon was awakening as well.

"Don't move," said Renamon who was standing behind him ready to act, he just put his hands up in surrender, a forlorn look upon his face

"Well you could at least let him introduce himself before you threaten his life…" Matthew muttered

"Why should we?! He possessed you and then fused with you, which is reason enough to delete a Digimon, let alone talk to one." I protested.

"Yes, but let me tell you the full story now that I can't hide the fact that you didn't kill him!" he sighed exasperated, and then he proceeded to tell me what happened before we hunted them down. "Now, will you let him formally introduce himself before you make accusations of possession?"

"Fine, Renamon; ease up on him" she backed off so that he could actually stand.

"Hello, my name is Wepmon, pleased to meet your acquaintance." he gave a Japanese style bow instead of a western handshake. His voice was like caramel, smooth and sweet, not at all the metallic tone that I expected.

"Well, that's new," I muttered while pulling out my D-arc "there is absolutely no data about your existence on the database."

"Well that is probably because I change a lot, even though it is extremely painful. I haven't been pinned down and analyzed by the network yet." He suggested. I raised an eyebrow,

"Can you shape shift?"

"No, I have not tired a full shape shift, but I can skin shift, giving me a different signature and appearance."

"So, now what?" Matthew asked, his hand stroking his chin. "I can't exactly bring you home…" he addressed Wepmon as he said this.

"Maybe you can, I have experimented with this in the past, but I have never tried something of this scale." Wepmon closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply.

"What is he doing?" Renamon queried, still on edge.

"I have a guess, but I am not sure about it…" Matthew began, "if it's right, he is slowly releasing the energy that he makes his weapons with back to the universe, to change shape. As opposed to what I did earlier..."

"And what was that?" I wondered to no one in particular.

"You know all that screaming that happened before you found me? It was my attempt to change skin, and by god, it hurt. I forced my body to change quickly, forcing all of the energy to be released very as heat. The fused being's skin was burned off and replaced with a copy of mine."

"Wow, you have had a much harder day than we did." My day consisted of being ground to bits by a chemistry final before being tossed around in a boat for an hour, aka PE.

Wepmon's body was shrinking until he became a sheathed katana. "This better?" hummed the sword.

"Yeah, but if I need you how will you change back? Or will we have to fuse again?" Matthew questioned.

"Well, if you draw the sword we will share a conscious and you will have the benefits of the fusion we had earlier without the side effects."

"So I can change weapons on the fly?" he said while unsheathing the golden blade, "Tonfa!" he commanded and Wepmon changed into the two pieces of red energy that manifested as two police batons, already in Matthew's hands.

"You see, it is much easier to transform into another weapon than a person…"

"Can you change back into a katana?" Matthew asked, "We need to go home."

"Right" Wepmon went back to the sheathed sword. I didn't notice it at first, but both the sheathe and the handle were black with gold inlays, the Tokugawan crest adorned the end of the handle and the side of the sheathe.

"Why is your symbol the Tokugawa crest?" I asked. The blade remained silent for a few seconds.

"That is a story for another time." Wepmon sighed.

"Well I should thank you for your hospitality and not killing me," he paused to pick up his partner, "but that sounds a bit odd, doesn't it?" Matthew joked.

"How about we leave it at you owe me a root beer." I chuckled.

"Sounds good." He bowed to both of us. "A_rigato_" he said in Japanese.

"What does that mean?"

"Thank you." He turned to leave.

"Wait! The other tamers and I, we're having a meeting here, at midday, tomorrow if you're interested…"

"Sure, that sounds wonderful; we'll get here around noon." He walked out and started his car, when he passed the front door, he waved goodbye. When he got out of sight, Renamon had a slight smile.

"You fancy him, don't you?" she quipped

"What!? I don't like him in that way!"

"Sure you don't?" Renamon leaned towards me.

"No! I mean… Yes! I've got no clue." I felt myself blushing, what I was saying was a complete lie, and Renamon knew it. Yes, I had feelings for him, and I would get to know him a lot better than being around for only an hour and half each school day.

I went back to sofa and grabbed my unopened root beer; a sigh escaped my mouth as I lay down. I took a swig and flicked through TV channels. _It just isn't my day…_ I thought several hours later before calling it a night.

The next day, I prepped to receive my guests, salvaging snacks, people could get drinks if they wanted to, but I didn't trust Travis, Shoutmon, or Terriermon to keep out of the pantry. I wore a pair of capries instead of the usual jeans. The first ones there were Seth and Terreirmon, and I would expect no less, they were punctual to a tee, and their Seth's parents needed to work that day anyway so they agreed to drop him off. Surprisingly, Travis and Matthew arrived together, Travis's bike locked into a bike rack mounted to the back of Matthew's car. Shoutmon had gone into Travis's Digivice to conserve space (What, you thought that they rode their bikes to the park with a Digimon on the back?). Travis grumbled that he didn't need to be driven here and there, but was still grateful for the lift. Matthew came in with a six-pack of root bear and Wepmon, still in sword mode.

"What's the root beer for?" I asked taking one and popping the cap off the top.

"Well, I thought I would clear that root beer I owed you, as well as try and show hospitality towards the other members." The boys, their Digimon, and Renamon all hesitated to take one. "Well, go ahead just be sure not to spill on the hostess's carpet." Travis didn't take one, neither did Shoutmon. "It's not poisoned…" Matthew muttered.

"What if you're lying?" He accused.

"Fine, you win…" he grabbed a bottle, popped the cap off and downed half of it. Neither took the last one. Matthew sighed, "Stubborn ones aren't you?"

"They are just slow to trust. You did give them a run for their money, right you two?" I commented.

"We won't accept bribes from a rival!"

"Rival? Since when am I your rival?" Matthew said aghast.

"Since yesterday, apparently." Commented Terriermon, the little one had trouble holding his root beer. A short time later, after many jokes, insults and quips, the tone became more serious.

"So, how long have you three been tamers?" Matthew asked casually, like one might say 'how was your weekend?'

"Well, I met Terriermon while I was training outside. He fell from one of the surrounding trees, being chased by a Karamon. Terriermon took a hit, and I caught him. I asked him if he was alright, he said yes before vaporizing Karamon. We shook hands after it was done, and a digivice appeared out of a light. That was about three months ago."

"Let me rephrase the question, the backstory isn't necessary, but how long ago it was is, and if you knew at least something about Digimon before you took one on as a partner." Matthew responded, wanting to hurry the conversation along.

"I have been partnered with Renamon since Christmas, and I had watched a little bit of tamers and then everything before that." I said

"Well, I suppose we could tell you, if you beat us in a fight!" Shoutmon exclaimed.

"Are you challenging me?" Matthew returned a hard look in his eyes.

"Yeah! Do you accept?" Travis agreed with his partner.

"You haven't even laid out the challenge yet!" Renamon disciplined.

"If you want a fight, let us go outside to the spacious yard, we don't want our hostess to be vengeful, now would we?" Wepmon hummed

"DEAR GOD!" yelled Travis and Seth simultaneously.

"Did I mention that Wepmon changed into a sword yesterday? No? Well now you know."

_I hope that they don't hurt themselves…_ I thought as Travis explained the rules. It would be a contest to see who could knock the other out first. Matthew would first fight Travis barehanded, and then if Matthew were still standing, he would face Shoutmon with Wepmon.

"I will add another rule, as to not risk injury or suspicion; we will forbade the use of special moves other than those to summon a weapon." I added, the last thing I needed was the neighbors reporting explosions and fire coming from her home.

"Right, well Travis, you first." Matthew grumbled, but he bowed anyway. _A true gentlemen_ I thought as Travis was prepping a kick towards his bowed head. Matthew was ready for it though, he was being both respectful and tactful. The bow was designed to piss off Travis so that he would make a stupid decision, while he was able to see his opponent's feat. In a move of elegance and brutality, he dodged to the side, placing his shoulder underneath Travis's raised leg, while one of his legs moved behind the last remaining support for Travis. Then coming up from the bow, he knocked Travis off of his feet and onto the hard ground, where Matthew put one knee into his solar plexus and one hand on his throat. "We're done here." He turned towards the deck, "Shoutmon, would you like to continue this?"

"What the hell do you think?!" shouted the small red lizard.

"Renamon, toss me my partner please." He caught the sheathed Wepmon with one hand. He now got off Travis, who rolled over and began to cough. "You okay?" Matthew said.

"Other than my pride being wounded and the wind taken out of my sails." He said between coughs.

"Well, you were able to take on my partner, but he isn't versed in fighting like I am. Now prepare to get destroyed!" Shoutmon boasted.

"I wonder what Matthew is going to use? We know that they have four different modes, glaive, tonfa, katana, and lancer, but he won't risk using a bladed weapon, leaving the tonfa as the only remaining choice. He will be at a range disadvantage with those…" Renamon analyzed.

"I just hope that they don't hurt each other." Seth vocalized, the generally quiet teen showing some concern for the combatants.

"Chigiriki!" Matthew commanded, Wepmon transforming into a staff with a chain and weight attached to one end. The staff was a metallic red-gold color, and glinted in the sunlight.

"That gave the advantage to him, that weapon can both strike and trap, not to mention the extended range."

"Renamon, just stop, the faster we finish this, the sooner we can continue the meeting." I stated as Shoutmon summoned his own staff and waited for the go-ahead. "It's your fight, guys, start whenever." As I finished my sentence, they charged at each other. _They are really going at it, _I thought, _their inner warriors showing._

They clashed in the dead center, their weapons clashing. Shoutmon could move and attack faster, but Matthew and Wepmon had the advantage of superior reach and strength. Shoutmon tried for a sweep, but the Chigiriki's chain wrapped around the staff, stopping it. Matthew pulled and took away Shoutmon's mic as well as strike him with the end of the weapon, knocking the small lizard back before hitting him over the head with his own staff.

"Katana." Wepmon went back into the sheath, "well, shall we continue the meeting?" Matthew picked up the unconscious Shoutmon and carried him up to the deck. "Seth, you never commented if you knew anything about Digimon…"

"Right, well I knew of it, but I never watched the show." Seth said, clearly embarrassed.

"I knew about the same amount as Seth when I first started, and that was around Christmas." Travis managed to cough out.

"Okay, how much do you know now?" Matthew inquired.

"We… have yet to find what is causing the Digimon to bio-emerge, and our knowledge of Digimon is fairly limited-"

"Two things, one, we think we may have an idea of what's driving them into our world, and two, it never occurred to any of you to go and watch the anime or research what you were getting into?" Matthew interrupted; face palming as he did so. "You clearly know enough, because you have your cards with you, allowing you to modify your partners, and you have spent money to buy these things…" none of us said a word, "well?"

"We each found a card box, completely filled with cards, and they seemed to be themed to our strengths. For instance, Shoutmon's was filled with lots of speed and strength upgrades, Terriermon's had lots of recharges, power, and support cards. Ours had a lot of weapons and augmentations." I explained.

Matthew sighed, "You all have a lot of learning to do-"

"Bite your tongue!" Travis snapped, "You just met your partner yesterday, yet you claim to be an expert! You-"

"Travis, today, I took both you and your partner down, in the real world, both of you would be dead!" Matthew exclaimed before taking a moment to clear his head, "My partner will explain what is happening in the digital world at the moment.."

"Here it goes…" he explained everything that he knew about the digital world at the moment, the virus, the bickering sovereign, the death of a demon lord, etc. At the end, there was a silence as everyone thought about what this news meant.

"Where do the deva stand?" Asked Shoutmon

"Well, I know for a fact that Azulongmon's have stayed faithful, as well as Baihumon's, I don't know about the other two." Wepmon hummed.

"That is very concerning," muttered Renamon, "not even the scavengers touched the data?"

"No, I heard that when they tried to absorb it, it just stayed there, and didn't move."

"I, for one, don't see a problem with a demon lord parrishing!" Terriermon commented

"Now you know what is happening, now what?" Matthew inquired.

"We generally move to honing our skills and our decks for the Digimon card game." Seth said.

"I am going to leave you three to that-"

"Wait, Matthew, you should learn how to play, just in case you get a digivice." I interrupted.

"Thanks for the offer, but no," he gestured to the blank brand on the back of his right hand, "this is my anchor point to Wepmon, which creates a similar bond to your D-arcs, but this also allows us to have a mental link in battle." He explained. "Listen up you six. We are at a turning point, we don't know what lies ahead, but are you ready to give your lives to protect others? Are you willing to take risks, and follow your hearts?" he addressed each to each of us. We all nodded in response. "Good, now all of you, study up, talk to your partners, and stay vigilant, you three are the best hope as of now. Wepmon and I will support you and provide advice, but we won't be the soldiers in coming days. Remember, all of you were chosen, don't forget that, in your darkest times, you will always find a way." He then left, depositing Travis's bike on the garage door.

"I wonder if activity will pick up, now that there is another one of us?" Seth mumbled to himself.

"Momentai, like Matthew said, we will always find a way to persevere." reassured Terriermon.

"One can only hope…" I commented pessimistically, _destiny is a load of crap, I just want to avenge my brother…_

**That was a chapter of mostly dialogue and plot… Thank you for reading! if you have time, please rate and review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Power of the Bonds**

**Chapter 3**

**DISCLAIMER: as much as I wished I owned Digimon, I don't, because if we did we would have another season of Tamers by now… The characters that I own are Matthew O'Mara, Wepmon, and all of the other OC's.**

**Matthew's POV**

The giant blue bird screeched from the air, the sound resonating off of the skyscrapers, like nails on a chalkboard. The locals saw it, but they couldn't believe it. I looked up from my lunch, towards the sound, seeing it through a building a block away. My gut tightened; there was something off with the bird.

"What the Hell was that?" My dad asked Krista and I in a calm tone. He was a tall man whose hair was thinning. He wore glasses, a collared t-shirt and knee legnth shorts. We had invited Krista to go see a movie with us, _Guardians of the Galaxy_.

I glanced at my friend, trying to come up with a solution.

"If I had to guess, then I would think that the creature flying a block to the left of us is a Digimon." Krista explained, returning the calm tone, "seeing the markings, I think that it is a Thunderbirmon."

"So, you have done your homework…" I muttered, pleased with the younger tamer, I picked up my milkshake and down what was left. "Dad, there is something that you need to know," I paused to look back to the Digimon, "behind the veil of reality there are other worlds, always meant to be kept separate, but as time goes on… well, I don't know the details. They drift closer, add that with the exponential rate that the world is using digital technology, and you have two worlds that begin to rub against each other, eroding the barrier between." I explained.

"Essentially, Digimon exist, 90 percent of Digimon just long for peace, and I assume you know what the other 10 want." Krista jumped in.

"So, what happens now? We fight that 10 percent?" He inquired.

"That about sums it up" I rounded off. Pulling out Wepmon from one of my pockets, we agreed that a Polypropylene Kunai would not only be easily accessible, but concealed (similar to the others, I didn't want to walk around with a sheathed sword strapped to my belt). I focused my energy into the kunai, waking Wepmon and reverting him to his usual form, the long Katana fit to my hands only. "If we don't deal with this threat, who will?"

"The police, the army the government. You shouldn't have to do this." A steady stream of tears was flowing down his cheeks, "Why is there a need for children to do this?!" he cried as I embraced him in a hug, "please, be careful."

"I always am." I responded before breaking the hug. "Let's go!" I told Krista.

"Renamon, try and bring him over here so that I can assist." Krista ordered her partner, "Digimodify! Hyper-wings." Transparent wings materialized on the kitsune's back before the two of us ran to fight the rampaging Digimon.

I ran into the building that I saw it through, to rocket through the glass on the other side, staying level with our prey.

I jumped and performed a long, heavy downward slash, but I missed the wing, and instead clipped off some feathers, but not enough. I landed on the ground, my now super human abilities instilled with my mental fusion with my partner taking most of the shock. I looked back up to see Renamon pulling the bird back towards the cafe we were in by playing with the target. By the time it got there, it was unstable in the air. Renamon took a hit from the bird's talons, causing a cry of pain before her hyper wings ran out; she plummeted to the ground, creating a small crater where she landed. Krista hopped over the railing and ran to her.

_Wepmon, do you have something for fighting an aerial opponent?_ I asked mentally.

"There is something that I have been meaning to try, but I haven't had a good opportunity… try using our 'Plasma Volley' attack." Wepmon sent an image along with the explanation.

_Right._

"PLASMA VOLLEY!" I yelled. As I concentrated on my target, a circle of energy javelins, aimed at the Digimon's wings, flew before a couple took one wing out of commission, the rest missed and proceed to fade as soon as they touched a surface. Thunderbirmon screeched as it fell to the ground from its wounds.

"That's new…" Renamon called out to me as she limped over, leaning heavily on Krista.

"You okay?" I asked, she was battered and scraped, on top of her wincing when she stepped on her right leg. It takes a lot for a Renamon to show pain… to anyone.

"I will heal, but I am done for this fight…," she said while the duo walked back to the cafe

"We should be able to take this one by ourselves." assured Wepmon from my hands. I nodded before running off to find where the quarry landed. It managed to glide two blocks away, and was looking pissed off.

"SPARK WING!" It shot a volley of electrically charged feathers at us; we managed to easily avoid it, which just made it even madder.

"WHY… WON'T… YOU… DIE!?" it yelled between volleys, its voice was far too high to be a Thunderbirmon, it sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.

_That it not normal in anyway shape or form… _I mentally muttered.

"Could it have possessed a child?"

_No, there is something different coming from it, like something ancient that turns my stomach upside down. I sense a kind of lawful madness, commanding everything to die._

"I have no idea what you just said, but it sounds bad." Wepmon responded, "We should focus on dealing with the rampaging Digimon in downtown."

"PLASMA VOLLEY!" I commanded from ten meters away, every shot hit, but it didn't go down, "PLASMA VOLLEY!" I pumped more energy into the command this time, creating three arrays of spears before they fired.

"You will all be mine one day; everyone will burn to be born anew in perfection!" Thunderbirmon exclaimed while it turned its eyes toward me straight on. There were no eyes in the sockets, just black spheres. In the moment before it erupted into data, I felt a blast of energy, like the gavel coming down to sentence a murderer to death. I swallowed trying to get the feeling out of my system, I felt like I was the guilty one. I sheathed Wepmon and collapsed, my mind drifting into the blackness.

**Krista's POV**

When I saw Wepmon carry Matthew into the cafe, I began to freak out.

"What the Hell happened!?" I shouted.

"I don't know!" He yelled back. "We finished Thunderbirmon, then he just fell to the concrete, unconscious." he said in a quieter voice. The cafe was completely empty, so Renamon was lying on a table, still recovering, and Mr. O'Mara was trying to bandage some of her wounds, particularly the gashes on her side from Thunderbirmon's talons.

"Let me see him," he asked, walking over, "set Matthew down over there." He pointed to a long table, next to Renamon.

"Right." When Matthew was on the table, Mr. O'Mara began to tear up.

"DAMN IT!" he yelled as he picked up a chair and threw it out the window. He trembled; the prospect of losing his child was more than he could bear. He turned towards his son and shouted at him "WAKE UP… please, I don't want to lose you." He hung his head.

"The only thing we can do is wait, the city is bound to be evacuated by now." commented Wepmon as he made two cups of coffee. He placed one in front of Matthew's father and took a sip of the other.

"How can you be so calm?" I screamed at him.

He laughed a good hearty belly laugh before he gestured to a sign on the back of his right hand, the exact same symbol as the back of Matthew's. "The reason that my symbol is that of the Tokugawa is because of Tokugawa Ieyasu, he believed in the power of the bond, be it between people or countries. He also sought to unite the world through this power, instead of ruling with fear and coercion, at the end of the day he was a cunning warrior who still kept his honor. This is how I seek to live, relying on the power of my friends and allies." He explained before taking a draught from his coffee. "If Matthew dies, then, my time is up as well, that is the price of our link… It is a surreal experience really, but I trust him to wake up."

"Trust can be a weakness." Renamon commented quietly. Matthew suddenly shot up.

"Matthew!" Mr. O'Mara exclaimed before hugging his son. Wepmon's eyes widened.

"Get away from him!" he yelled, but it was too late. He grabbed a steak knife and pressed it up against his father's jugular, spinning him around to show us. I looked into his eyes, they were pure black. "Thunderbirmon had those same eyes…" muttered Wepmon.

**Matthew's POV**

"MATTHEW, WAKE UP!" a voice screamed, I forced my eyes open. I saw nothing, not darkness, just an infinite void. My mind was foggy, but I recognized a presence in the darkness.

"You again!"

"Ah! So, the hero finally awakes, certainly took your time, you're missing the show." the being snapped its fingers and suddenly a window appeared, I saw my dad up against my chest and my friends all staring at me like a monster, a steak knife was in my hands. My gut clenched.

"You! Where are you, COWARD!?" I shouted into the void.

"Watching you struggle is too much fun, longing to keep your sanity, just let go, be reborn." it whispered in my ear. Using a combination of sound perception and presence sensing, I punched to where I thought the things face was. "Well that was rude." I heard it say, muffled by my fist.

"If you come out, then we can fight on a level playing field."

"Why not? Let's see what you can do." The void suddenly turned white, and I saw it. **IT** was a blue skinned, young boy. It had black, soulless eyes, a permanent grin, plastered on its face. Stitches ran along its arms and legs. I felt my blood boil at the sight of it. Power rushed into my being.

_Miss me?_

"Wepmon?"

_Yep, I managed to get in, but now we need to fight to get out, I can only give you the ability to manipulate the plasma energy_.

"Thank you."

"Who ya talkin' to?" It said while folding its arms impatiently.

"Myself! ENERGY JAVELIN!" I threw a still forming projectile at the monster. It just took the spear to the heart like it was nothing.

"Come now, you think that a measly human like you could kill me that easily… Ha!" it began to casually meander towards me, without a care in the world.

"PLASMA BARRAGE! PLASMA BARRAGE! PLASMA BARRAGE" I hammered him over and over again, until he was a pincushion to the floor. "That should do it." I muttered to myself, before he started to break the javelins like they were chopsticks. I grew more infuriated. Summoning a katana, I ran towards the now standing whatever it was and began to hack and slash until there was only a pile of body-parts lying on the ground, the body parts began to regenerate. "I need to take more extreme measures with you." I prepared my body, focusing all of my anger, my hatred of this thing and its ideals. "PRISMATIC DESTRUCTION!" I yelled, unleashing it all into my blade while slashing it from shoulder to hip.

"Don't you see that it is pointless?" I smirked as I felt the shock of the equivalent of a tailor-made, plasma nuke. I heard the screams as its flesh burned away and the bones turned to dust. "Remember this name, **HUMAN**!" He said like it was a grievous insult, "I will return for you, and your world, I am VIR-151, and I will not be beaten!" it struggled to stay.

"As long as we draw breath, we will stop you." I paused; VIR-151 was nothing anymore. "Damn you to Hell" I spit into the smoldering ashes as the world faded around me.

When I came to, I was lying in a dark room, the window letting a little bit of light. I tried to move my hands to my eyes, when I felt the cold steel on my skin. Craning my neck, I saw both of my wrists handcuffed to the bed frame.

_Welcome back._ Wepmon said

_Where are we?_ I looked around the room, _Where are you?_

_Well, let me brief you on what happened after you purged VIR-151 from your system. Your body went back to being unconscious.. A half hour after that the feds came storming in knocked us out, and then I woke up here. In a cell unharmed_. When he said it I saw what I assumed was his view, I also felt an intense pain in my arm and my chest.

_Really? Because that is not what I feel._ I responded.

_How could you tell?_ Wepmon asked

_I felt it when you talked about the cell. It probably has something to do with our mental link._

_You do realize that shared sensations are something that I have never seen before._

_Can you get out of your cell?_

_My blade could slice through a centimeter of chrome Digizoid, so I think that some steel bars shouldn't be a problem. _There was a pause before I sensed my partner panicking, _I can't summon anything, nor shape shift._

_Well, dammit, guess we have to wait a while then. _I concluded. After what felt like an eternity, the door to the room opened, and the light poured in.

"Why are the lights off, this is no way to treat a guest!" a voice said, it was very mellifluous and deep. The lights suddenly turned on and I could see two men in black suits standing guard at the door, while a man in a long green coat strolled in, he had short, neatly kept, brunette hair and was wearing glasses, a wide smile on his perfect face. He was tall, and had long, stringy arms, like the kind a scientist would have. He looked to be in his late teens to early twenties "Aren't you a curious one?" he asked before humming the Digimon theme song, note for note.

"Who are you, why am I being restrained here, and where are my friends!?" I hissed.

"No need for the hostilities, I am Doctor Kurtis Paronus, and you are in the hospital that we are using as a field base for investigating the incident with the giant blue bird earlier today. Your friends are fine, they are waiting for you down in the lobby, but before we release you, we need to take a blood sample."

"Why?" I didn't trust this, any of this, for instance the fact that they hadn't taken off the handcuffs yet.

"After the creature disappeared, there was a large rise in injuries and deaths from what eye-witnesses say were sudden homicidal urges."

"Okay, now the handcuffs make more sense, but I am fine I really am." There was a silence in which the Dr. considered this.

_Matthew, he is the one who incapacitated all of us, he had a very fast Digimon partner, after I was in here he explained what was going to happen, the humans would be let go, being told that it was all a hallucination, while the Digimon would be sent back to our 'home plane.' He thinks that we controlled you_. Wepmon panicked.

"How's that conversation going?" Dr. Paronus asked, my eyes widened.

"So you have figured it out then?" I was curious.

"That your partner bears the same symbol as you on his right hand and that that is probably binding you? Then yes."

"So why put on the fake act?"

"Just had to be sure that you weren't some hapless human that they saved."

"Including telling my partner that you were going to send him back to the digital world?"

"We have been studying human-Digimon bonds for years now; you think that we wouldn't know a mental anchor when we saw one?"

"Well Dr. Paronus, are we free to go?"

"No, we won't let you go, except on one condition: that you join my team in protecting our world."

"I need to see this team first, and for the love of the sovereign, get my partner and I free to move about!" I joked. He pulled out what at first glance looked like a cell phone, but I recognized it as a digivice. "That's new."

"You haven't seen one of these before?" I shook my head "it has the storage and healing properties of the Xros loader, and the strength of the cards from Tamers." Thinking back on it, I realized that I never saw Krista's Digivice up close.

_I just assumed that it was a tamers D-arc!_ I thought.

"Kotemon, release the prisoner and bring him to me."

"Yes sir"

"Please don't call me sir we have been through this hundreds of times now."

"Alright, Kurtis."

"Thank you," he paused before taking the key out of his pocket, "I have been paired with him since new year's eve." I rubbed my wrists as Kurtis opened the door to let in a short humanoid in a kendo gear, his yellow eyes shining through the dark mask. His bamboo bokken was at his side. I felt my arm start to throb again, directly over my veins.

"Hey Kurtis, did you inject something into my partner's arm?" I asked the man.

"No, why?"

"My partner said that his arm was throbbing along with his chest. Also the fact that he can't do anything."

"The chest was my fault, but I am sure it was taking a sample of your blood so that we could identify you in the future and input your information into the database, seeing as you have been alluding the scanners for years now." Kotemon explained. We walked through the base for a short while before we stopped at a metal garage door.

"Here we are! Welcome to our training room, here we have a lot of room to spar. My team is inside." Kurtis said as he placed his hand on a scanner before the door slide open with a metallic clanging. The room inside was alight with white fluorescent light, like a gym.

"Dr. Paronus! You're back!" a boy about my age ran up with along with a similarly sized yellow furred monkey beside him, an Apemon.

"Ah, Linn, go gather the others, we have a new member." the two ran off. "That was Linn Bendixen and his partner; he is my right hand man here."

"Are you their leader?" asked Wepmon.

"Kinda, I lead the squad, but I take orders from the Lt. Colonel, I generally recruit and direct as opposed to fight in combat scenarios." Kurtis explained the rest of the group strolled in after he finished. I scanned their faces and immediately saw Krista and Renamon, the look in her eyes said 'we'll talk later.' On either side of her were Travis and Seth with their partners.

"Matthew! How are you doing? I didn't think that you would join up." I was overjoyed for a few seconds before I saw that all of them had aged, by at least a year.

_We should investigate that later_ I sent to Wepmon and he nodded in response. Behind them was a person I assumed to be the Lt. Colonel, an imposing man for sure. He had a very muscular figure, an angular face, and what I thought was an elementary school student on his shoulders, with pale blue skin and stitches running along his arms and legs. It had a pair of white shorts and a white t-shirt on. VIR-151, there was no doubt.

I felt a chill course through my body as my blood froze; I also felt something break within Wepmon a barrier that had been holding him back. He transformed into the katana and we charged at the thing.

**How was that for a chapter!? Sorry it took so long, I ran low on inspiration halfway through. Thank you for reading!**

**-Helioslude**


	4. Chapter 4

**Power of the Bonds**

**Chapter 4**

**DISCLAIMER: as much as I wished I owned Digimon, I don't, because if we did we would have another season of Tamers by now… The characters that I own are Matthew O'Mara, Wepmon, and all of the other OC's.**

**Matthew's POV**

We covered the distance with supernatural speed. Everything else seemed to be in molasses, as both human and Digimon turned with surprised faces.

"What happened_?_" Wepmon asked.

_Can you feel it?_

"What?"

_The exact same thing that I felt when we faced Thunderbirmon, but a lot stronger, like something pushing its way into my mind, whispering to lay down and submit. _

"I didn't tell you my name did I?" VIR-151 said, not caring about our charge. "VIR-151, code-name: Pestilence, that was the codename my creators gave me, it seemed to fit. Illness cleanses the world of the weak, leaving only those strong enough to ride out the storm. Beings such as myself would create the perfect world, no war, no prejudice, just beings living in peace. " it finished before looking into my eyes, there was an almost religious zeal in them. I stopped for a moment and stared, aghast.

"Is this how you think the world should be? Free from all except you? Cleansed of all that is evil? How many deaths would it take to create this utopia? Billions? Trillions? Do you think that you are alone in wanting a lasting peace!?" I shouted with all my heart. "Do you think that you are the only one who wishes the world could get past differences in skin-pigments, ways of thought and religion, maybe even species!?" My body shuddered as I let everything out, all of my hopes and ideals finally spoken. We were still the same distance away from Pestilence than where we started, but I didn't care. I didn't care that the thing in front of me had the same end goal as I did.

"How far will you go to achieve that end? Would you murder something that has sentient to prevent that ideal from permanently being corrupted?" Wepmon asked, full of concern.

_I get what you are trying to say, I don't want to be whatever Pestilence is, nowhere near it; but we are two sides of the same coin. Polar opposites, I fight for what I believe, the world should be and I hope that my actions move it to that end. A world in which everything can live. That is what I hope will come someday._

"I do too. Before we fight again, I wanted to say I couldn't have chosen a better partner. "

_Thanks, now let's kick this guy's ass!_

"Ready for round two?" a large smile crept across its spheres of the void circled just behind it.

This time Pestilence made the first move, the spheres shifted into an ebony spear with a tip of jet-black chrome digizoid. His attack came so quickly that I barely managed to deflect the spear with Wepmon with only a glancing blow to my shirt, which was quickly eaten away,

"Anything that this spear pierces will wither and die, even what once was alive is eaten away such as your cotton shirt." He explained while circling me. He launched a flurry of thrusts each one I was almost too slow to deflect. "Your life would be particularly sweet if you had given in, you could have lived out the rest of your life with your friends and family, saving the world, even defeating me. You could have seen utopia, but now you have made your choice, that offer is permanently lost!" He faded out of existence for a fraction of a moment before I felt the lightest of breezes pass behind me, "Now feel my wrath." It whispered before slamming a spear through my chest. I looked down and saw the end pass through me, my heart outside of my body, all of the arteries had been severed perfectly. Everything suddenly smelled of sickness as diseases wracked my body.

"I should be dead." I chuckled to myself as the pain began to numb. I could still see Wepmon in my hand, and I could feel my partner cry out.

"Oh, don't worry, You won't die just yet, I will force you to watch yourself kill all you hold dear and then, when you are in your deepest and most painful moment when you ask me to let you die, let you forget everything, I will refuse and use you to keep slaughtering until there is nothing left!" It cackled afterwards, not one of happiness or comedy, but of delusional goodness.

I did the unexpected, I forced myself to laugh at all of the pain coursing through me, I laughed at the being behind me, still holding the spear, and I laughed at the sheer impossibility of it all.

"You know, for a being that wants to kill everything, you haven't done your research." I croaked as loud as I could manage.

"What?"

"Do you know how many mass murderers have existed in the 150,000 years of bloodshed that the human race has lived through? How many wars and invasions, slaughters and plagues, famines and societal collapses have happened over the combined lifetime of 100 billion people? Yet, we persist, we persevere, and we survive. Do you know how? How someone can work through all of this world's sorrows?" I paused to let my questions sink in before continuing "Hope and faith. Ethereal emotions that no one can crush. You will never take our hope for a better life, our faith that someone will make it all better, and most of all, our faith that each of our lives matter, so we will defend it until our last breath!" I finished off with a shout, a feeling of fire suddenly spread through my body, and Pestilence's spear clattered to the ground behind me, my heart still skewered on the end. My body healed the damage that I sustained in the last fight. My brain felt like it was going to burst.

"Impossible! You could not have recovered that quickly! You are frail and weak!" Pestilence shouted as it scampered away from me.

_Wepmon, what did you just do?_ I asked, very confused.

"Well, I fused with you to heal you and purge your body, and now because we are fused with the same goal, we are essentially one consciousness, meaning that our ability to deal with omnicidal maniacs has grown by several orders of magnitude." He said, cracking a smile, seen by my mind's eye.

_I thought that you would only give me the ability to manipulate plasma._ I questioned what he said earlier.

"I said that, but you gave yourself that power, sure I healed you, but this is your mental space. You rule here, not Pestilence, not myself, not anyone other than you."

_Thanks for the pep talk._

"Anytime." He responded as I felt Pestilence regain courage and move to lance me again.

"You will bow before me!" it yelled hoarsely as it thrust, I just spun out of the way inside of its guard and with one blow, shattered the spear, from the tip to the bottom of the shaft it splintered. I wouldn't have traded the look of shock on his face for the world.

"No." I responded simply. "I am the one who rules here, not you, nor anyone else."

"Why do you rebel? I'm hitting you with the most powerful obedience waves I have! Why won't you die!?" It screamed at me as it backpedaled like no tomorrow.

"What did I just say? We all truly believe that our lives matter, so we defend them until our last breath, no matter what." I said calmly while summoning our katana. "You shall never return here!" My sword was wreathed in a golden light, similar to a setting sun. "HELIOTIC ULTAMATUM!" I shouted as I slashed. A bright light enveloped us as the illusion was shattered and we were back in a mental field, but I recognized it as something that I saw every single time that we spoke behind my eyes. The land was verdant with soft green grass, the sky had a few clouds drifting lazily across it, and there was always a light breeze. There were rolling hills and the occasional tree as well.

"Wepmon?" I asked, knowing that he was right beside me.

"What?" he replied quickly, sensing my uncertainty.

"You mentioned the feds coming in and taking you prisoner. That was clearly an illusion, so where we are now? What have we done?"

"I did explain that I would be doing to try and reach you, but thinking back, it was only after I talked to you again that I remembered Kurtis and those other people." His expression turned from one of uncaring to one of realization.

"You tried to reach me after I held the knife to my dad's neck?" I asked.

"Yes, I used our anchor and then you know what happened next." He told me.

"Okay, so, we are now free, but we can't wa-"

"WAKE UP YOU DUMBASS!" I was interrupted by Krista yelling at me as the world was gone in an instant and I reopened my eyes. Wepmon lying face first on the ground next to what appeared to be a hospital bed. I sat up. Then was quickly crushed in a hug from Krista. After I felt myself blush, I returned it, glad to be back to the real world. I felt her sob as she buried her head in my shoulder. I looked to see a needle in my arm leading to a plastic bag filled with a clear liquid.

"Krista, could you do me a favor and tell me how long I have been asleep?" I gently asked as Renamon materialized and helped Wepmon up from the floor and walked him over to a chair. I nodded in thanks.

"You *sob* have been *sob* gone for a week!" She leaned back before continuing, "Welcome back" she regained her composure and handed me a drink I gladly took a draught from it.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, being careful not to upset her again, I saw it in her eyes; she hadn't had enough sleep for at least a couple days on top of being emotionally distressed.

"I have been coming to see you in my free time, spending hours up here, hoping that you would wake up. When I rested, I couldn't sleep, only lie awake and think about you…" she paused before lightly hugging again, "I hope that this isn't too creepy." She added.

"Not at all, in fact it is sweet. I have some information about our slayer of demons-"

"That can wait, for now let's take a break from the world, just for a moment." She interrupted again. I felt her lean more on me than before and she was dozing off. I did something that forced me to build up more courage than facing an ultimate. I started to hum a lullaby and lie her down onto the bed as I got up. Long before the song would have finished, she was breathing slowly.

"She likes you a lot, you know." Renamon said softly to avoid waking her sleep-deprived partner.

"Really?" I said with my mouth slightly a gap. Wepmon face-palmed and Renamon just shook her head in disbelief.

"You have the courage to face down an ultimate level Digimon, and you are scared stiff by the fact that a girl has a crush on you…" Wepmon sighed before skin shifting into Travis, minus googles. "I am going to get some fresh air. You coming señorita zorra?" He asked Renamon,

"Since when did you learn Spanish?" I inquired, my head still getting around what he meant.

"Since we cleanly fused." He lent in and said in a low voice "Don't worry, I will explain everything to Renamon, so we should only need to do one repeat." I nodded to acknowledge it, and then he whispered so softly that not even Terriermon could hear it, "When she wakes up, make a move."

"Right, run along you two, I have slept enough for a long while." I said while sitting down in one of the comfortable chairs in the hospital room with a smirk on my face. When they left, I took a look around, and it looked so much like the one I had in the dream that I could not help but wonder if that was what gave Pestilence's illusion such power, they had an element of truth in them.

I looked out over the city, my home, but I saw far more activity happening than there should ever be at night. Searchlights roamed the skies, buildings were being salvaged, and entire swathes of the city were now flat. If I listened carefully, I could hear the sound of massive machines, like tank engines, running in the distance; fortifications could be seen on the street. Overall, it looked like a warzone. _What managed to put the city on such high alert, such that the military would need to be involved?_ I looked back to Krista sleeping, _Is that what she meant? 'let's just take a break from the world, just for a moment' _Her words sprang back into my mind.

"What have you been through over a week?" I wondered aloud contemplating our current situation. After about fifteen minutes, I heard a knock at the door, not a heavy one, but loud enough to be easily hear. I walked over and tossed it open to see none other than Kurtis Paronus, even the smallest details were the same as in the dream.

"I see you're up! Hi, my name is Dr. Kurtis Paronus and-" He said quite loudly before I silenced him with a glare that could kill. He looked inside and saw Krista sleeping on my bed. "Oh, sorry about that. I treated you when you were brought in by your friends." He explained in a now hushed tone.

"Why don't we talk outside?" I suggested before he could go on, and we began to walk to a covered balcony seeing as it was pouring rain.

"So, has someone explained the situation to you yet?" Kurtis asked carefully.

"From what I can gather, the city has been invaded to the point where the military is required, based on the wide swathes of flat city, I would guess the enemy is quite powerful and finally," I paused for a brief second, "you're not just a doctor now, are you?"

"You have deduced that already? Damn, your fast." He looked out over the bright city.

"I took a shot in the dark," I lied. He looked over to me before I heard his head lightly thump against the railing.

"The Digital Accident Tactics Squad, an international organization designated to deal with these kinds of situations… what a load of bull crap that is." He sighed and then took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Has the attack been going on for since I have been out?" I inquired.

"Yep, since the giant blue bird trashed downtown. From then on, it has just gotten worse, we have been helping the military, but there is only so much we can do." He paused to look up again, "We're spies, thieves, assassins, not soldiers! I have seen men die, you have to on this job, but I have never seen families torn apart, or so many lives wasted in conflict." He exhaled, the scent dissipating into the night air. "I saw a mother and a daughter, running away from an army of goblins, we did everything we could, but the girl stumbled and before she could get back up, she was grabbed by one of the monsters and taken off like a trophy!" His voice trembled at the last part as ash fell off the end of the cigarette while tears rolled down his face.

"You sound like you have given up! She could still be alive, waiting for someone to save her!" Yelled impossibly loud Travis. I turned back towards the doorway, and there he was, still wearing the same attire, as when we met, sport shorts and a bright blue t-shirt. He had several bandages around his arms and on his leg, and had crutches.

"He does have a point; you did after all say that you were spies, thieves, and assassins earlier, not to mention the fact that they can be reasoned with, they want to rule this world, not destroy it." I pointed out.

"How do you know that!? They seem like they want to destroy everything to me! They are ruthless and brutal, considering everything theirs to toy with, our world, our homes, our lives-" He was promptly cut off by a left hook to the stomach that was delivered by me. He crumpled, the wind knocked out of him. I felt a sudden rush of anger; normally I wasn't that quick to violence, however, there were some sensitive topics that provoke me, including that.

"Don't talk about them like their some sort of animals…" I said in a low voice, "you have no right to, I understand how easy it is to see them all as enemies, and how could you not with all of the different varieties out there. I have seen both sides, the feral, monsters straight out of hell, but I have also seen the good, the heroes and the protectors, the ones that have saved this city's ass more times than I could count!" I finished off with a point out to the skyline.

"How? How are you the expert authority on this hmmm? You can't be older than eighteen, and your friend looks like he is a freshmen in high school, what right do you have to talk down to me, both figuratively and literally." Kurtis managed to gasp out from the ground.

"We'll prove ourselves, that's how;" Krista's voice rang out from behind us, "we are at war gentlemen, and as much as I hate to say this, we are soldiers now, not just some teenagers that happen to be on the scene. You give us a chance, and we will prove our worth, right guys?" She made eye contact with Travis and me; we both nodded and stepped over to stand with her.

"No way, if the military, even with analysis from the DATS, can barely hold bottlenecks, then there is no way that a few kids could stand against them… it is suicidal!" Kurtis managed to get up, using the railing for support, a concerned look on his face.

"Come on guys, let's get some rest before tomorrow, we'll need it based on the speech that you all just gave…" I turned around to see Seth make his way down the hallway, looking to be in a similar shape to Travis, bandages running along portions of their entire bodies.

"He is right, and now that you're all here, there is something we need to discuss." I said as we maneuvered around the bustling hospital back to my room.

When Renamon and Wepmon came back, we began to touch base with the rest of the group, us explaining the whole Pestilence thing, and them telling about the events of the last week with the invasion.

"What we know for a fact so far, is that the conquering Sovereigns, Zuqiaomon and Baihumon, have decided to make their moves." Seth explained while sipping a cup of tea.

"They have realized that just sending one or two devas at a time was a stupid plan in the first place…" added Travis, boisterous as always.

"So they decided to raise an insanely large army of Digimon that can either be paid, or are loyal to the Soverigns." Finished Krista, not to be left out.

"Anything else I should know? The people seem very demoralized." I commented, seeing forlorn faces on everyone in the room except for Wepmon.

"They decided to make the Devas leaders of the regiments…" Shoutmon quietly muttered, dispute his namesake

"Also the fact that there have been no reinforcements from Azulongmon or Ebonwumon." Renamon looked down at the floor.

"Not to mention more Digimon flood through the barrier each day, legions, we will lose at this rate, no matter what we do…" Terriermon slunk down to the floor, "and if any of you say momentai I will make sure that you don't see the break of day."

"Okay then, hakuna mata-" *SLAP!* I felt my jaw dislocate and snap back into place as the slap came from Renamon, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" I shouted over fits of laughter from almost everyone on the team. "Really? You really think that that is hilarious… when I get out of this bed tomorrow, all of you will learn a new meaning of pain!" I glared at everyone, particularly Shoutmon, who was rolling on the floor with uncontrivable fits of laughter. Which in turn caused everyone to giggle, then chortle, then laugh, to finally end in a roaring guffaw of happiness.

**Krista's PoV**

I hate to admit it, but girls snort too, even Renamon, who was the most composed out of all of us, let out more than a few loud laughs. We laughed so much, that all of our ribs hurt. As to why we laughed at something so trivial, it was because of the situation around us, our minds were so desperate for something to smile and laugh about, in the face of an omnicidal maniac, two expansionist, human-hating, sovereign, and war that we were highly unlikely to win. When the ridiculous cackling contest finally ended, everyone except for Renamon, Matthew, Wepmon, and I left. It was an awkward moment, so I decided to tell a tale.

"Hey Matthew, did I tell you about how I met and came to know Renamon?" I asked uncertainly because I had told the story to him while he was comatose.

"No, I am fairly sure that you haven't. Enlighten me oh bardic teller of tales!" He said with charm and a little wit thrown into the mix.

I sat down into a chair and began to collect my thoughts, "Ok, this may take a while, are you ready to begin?" I asked with as much mystery as I could muster about an origin story.

**End of Chapter 4**

**AN: That took far longer than it should've, but I like how it eventually turned out after three rewrites. Thanks for reading and review if you have the time.**

**Helioslude**


	5. Chapter 5

**Power of the Bonds**

**Chapter 5**

**DISCLAIMER: as much as I wished I owned Digimon, I don't, because if we did we would have another season of Tamers by now… The characters that I own are Matthew O'Mara, Wepmon, and all of the other OC's.**

**Krista's PoV**

I leant back and focused, trying to remember that day, all those months ago…

**Flashback**

I sat there, staring intently at a point on the board, not absorbing what was being said, how could I? I just found out that my older had pneumonia. I felt like I was going to be sick, I tucked my knees up to my chest and buried my head into them. My parents forced me to stay at school instead of going with him, saying that it "was not a good enough excuse to miss out on a day of finals." _BULLCRAP!_ A voice screamed in the core of my mind, but I just nodded, the rest of me numb from the thought that my older brother, Ethan could possibly die. He had always been my compass, guiding me through my struggles, comforting me through my hardships, and stood up for me when I was picked on. Thinking about what would happen if he were gone… let's just say that no one should have to be alone through their troubles and leave it at that. I closed my eyes, just for an instant before I felt something shake me. My eyes popped open to see the inside of a car, leaning back in the passenger seat.

"I see your awake…my name is Mr. Lakmia, I was sent to take you to the hospital to see your brother." An old man behind the wheel stated. He looked fit, but he had a long grey beard, he stroked his chin with one hand and drive with the other. His skin was lightly tan and his eyes were sunken into this head. He had a long nose and pointed ears, like a Spock-Pinocchio fusion.

"Who the hell are you!? I don't need a chauffeur!" I said, my hands balling into fists.

He held his hand up to stop me "I know, but you don't seem in the best of shape, I thought that you would need help to get to Ethan... but if you want to go back to finals we can turn around-"

"NO! I will go to him, I couldn't care less about anything right now, **just take me to my brother!**" I shouted, infuriated that he would even suggest something like turning around.

This unleased a soft chuckle from the old man, before it gradually escalated into a cackle "I haven't seen such ambition for years… would you do anything for your brother?" The old man asked rather abruptly.

I just stared ahead and thought about it, _would I do anything for him? _ I reflected on what had happened in the last few years, _**of course you would… he is your brother, protector and guide… the rest of the world can just go and burn in hell for all you care.**_ A new voice whispered from the back of my mind, snaking its way through my consciousness.

"Yes, I would do anything!" I said in a confident tone, I was going to Ethan.

When we got to the hospital, I felt yet more excitement welling inside of me. I wanted to rush in, to sprint past everybody, I didn't care if I had to go through hell to be with him, I would get there, no matter who or what got in my way.

"You can't run inside just yet, you have to know a few things first. He is in the overnight ward, you can get there, but all of the doors are locked from the inside, you need a key, three people have it, the doctor, the security chief, and me." He paused to reach across to the glove box and opened it. The inside was adorned with leather and studs, almost like it was designed to hold something of great importance. There were strange markings on the latch and on the outer edges of the box, almost like Nordic runes, but not quite. Inside, there was only one thing, a key. It was a long narrow shaft with no sharp edges; one end had a rune on it, similar to the box, and the other was shaped in the image of a human skull. "The Skeleton Key… you have no idea how long I have worked to obtain this… longer than you have been alive, oh yes… much longer." He began muttering to himself. The primal survival instincts of my mind were kicking in, setting off alarms; I pushed them down, ignoring every urge to flee from Mr. Lakmia.

"Okay… so now what? We can get into the room, so why not just go!" I said.

"Foolish child, one does not use the Skeleton key, it requires a bit more… sacrifice to be used properly." He held out the key, skull first, "Put the tip of a finger on the skull, and then we can use it." I didn't trust it, every fiber told me not to, but I put the tip of my index finger just barely grazing it, the skull moved and bit it, causing blood to trickle into its mouth, I tried to pull away from it, but Mr. Lukmia held my arm in place with an iron grip. "If you break the deal now, the skull will never respond to you or your family's blood ever again. You wouldn't want that would you?" A smug smile spread across his face like wildfire. The key was turning red as more blood drained out of my hand. When it was completely blood red, it shifted and changed into a key that read out the room number and I could feel my gut retching, I felt something heavy appear in my other hand, I looked down to it, It was a knife, a long stiletto with a razors edge. The handle and blade had more of the runes and there was a sinister aura about it. "I give you this knife to use only as a last resort, to be only used if necessary." He said looking deep into my eyes, like he was evaluating me. "You'd best be off then, I would love to, but I can't go with you… there are other matters I need to attend to." He grinned menacingly. Not wanting to spend another second inside of that car with the crazy old man, I put the knife in my boot, it was already designed to hold one, and got out and practically ran through the hospital… searching for my brother's room. I had a few close calls, but people just dismissed it as a teen going out for some air.

"Ethan's condition seems to fluctuate, going from stable to unstable…" I heard, and quickly found a nurse speaking with my parents, walking in my direction; I swerved to the other side of a group of doctors coming back from a break. I wove my way through them and barely avoided the gaze of my dad. He was an imposing figure without his standing as an executive of a tech firm designing and creating prosthetic limbs. His wide set shoulders, angular face, sea blue eyes, two prosthetic legs, and burly arms made him terrifying when ticked, let alone angry.

"Is there anything we can do?" asked my mother, fear creeping into her voice. A complete opposite of my dad on physical traits, she was skinny, her face slightly round, short, marathon-runner, housewife, and aspiring writer. She shared many personality traits with dad, including the becoming terrifying when pissed.

"No, the only thing we can do is wait and watch. He will be in cycles of agony, and there is nothing we can do until he stabilizes one way or the other." She repeated before slipping back into Ethan's room. Her voice held that false sincerity to it, on top of a bubbling perkiness that would drive anybody insane. I snaked up to the door and used the Skeleton Key, to get it open, surprisingly it worked. I pushed the door open to see Ethan, laying there unconscious, the nurse was about to inject something into him. I slipped the knife out of my boot, noticing the biohazard symbol on the syringe. I thought that it was some kind of poison, so I slunk behind the nurse as the door closed. As soon as it was, I did the only thing in my mind, I stabbed her between the shoulder blades, I have never forgotten the screams, and she shuddered and turned to me with tears running down her face, genuine terror in her eyes, the fear of void too much for her she collapsed. I watched as her body was turned to ashes by the blade, her body seemed to be absorbed into it. The blade clattered to the ground, I felt a vial in my hand, I looked at it, there was a clear liquid inside, a rubber stopper to prevent it from spilling, and it was only about 15 milliliters of the substance was swishing around, waiting to be used.

**Make your brother drink the liquid; it will cure him!** Something whispered in my head. I moved closer to Ethan before he woke up and looked at me with a funny face, like he was groggy.

"Krista? What are you doing here? I thought you had finals!" He eyed me suspiciously; he looked around, "Where is the nurse? She is almost always here when I wake up..."

"She is out, but she told me to make you drink this," I handed him the vial, then turned it over in his hands, "I don't know the name of the drug, but that is what she said to give you when you woke up." I saw that he was still skeptical on the whole thing, but he popped open the stopper and downed it in one swig. He suddenly began to grasp his throat, like it was acid going down, he shuddered and turned to me with a forlorn look on his face, 'after all these years, this is how you threat me?' his eyes seemed to wonder, he began to sputter and foam before falling back down onto his bead with eyes glazed over in death. I let the tears flow out of me, I couldn't scream, I couldn't shout so loud that people in China could hear my cries. My voice just left.

"Oh how naïve you are…" Mr. Lakmia said from right beside me. "To think that you would trust a voice in your head, not only that but you never question me, or that you would murder for your brother." He began to chuckle before finishing in a cough, "Your greed had surpassed all of my expectations!" I turned to him slowly, my mind numb. Something had changed about him, his body became taller, his clothes turned into a long flowing robe, his ears and nose had grown even longer, and his eyes were blood red. "Allow me to introduce myself! I am Barbamon, the Digimon demon lord of greed, and you, have allowed me to finally regain enough power to leave this retched place I was banished to and return to seek all the universe has to offer!" He summoned a staff, "Goodbye Krista, we shall never meet again." He thumped the staff to the floor and he was gone with a puff of smoke. The dagger had suddenly become ashes in my fist and I felt the Skeleton key shatter in my pocket. A massive wave of depression crashed on me. I fell to my knees and sobbed, my body had taken enough, and I swore I could hear my heart burst like an overfull balloon. I screamed, slammed my fist into the floor a hundred times, my eyes burned, my ribs were sore, knuckles bloody until someone finally put a stop to my spiraling depression. I managed to get up and stumble over to Ethan's body and prepared to cave his skull in, when a gentle hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"We should let the dead rest, especially if they were family. If you do raise your fist against them, you are literally beating a dead horse, let go. There is nothing you could have done." The words were feminine, and soft-spoken, not dislike a mother comforting a hurt child. I did what came naturally to me; I turned around and buried my head into their fur. _Wait a second… fur?_ I thought before looking up. I was hugging a tall, hominoid, yellow fox with blue eyes, markings underneath them, a strip of white fur on her midsection, and two strong legs, like a martial artist would have. I jumped back and yelped. "It's okay… you just seemed like you could use some comfort." The kitsune stood there, I almost forgot my brother, and memories resurfacing that haven't in ages.

"Renamon?" my mind struggled to remember the name. It was one of the few things I was good at, visual association.

"Yep, not the same as the one you're thinking of, but same species. I know how you feel, 'what could I have done to stop this?' 'How do I deal with the guilt?' these are questions that you must deal with in your own time and way, but here is some advice. Don't blame yourself, that swine you encountered is the most skilled at being a manipulative cur in possibly the entire digital world. If you're going to direct your anger at someone, be mad at him, it may not fully relieve the depression, but it would make me feel one hell of a lot better if I got to make one of his best laid plans backfire, then treat him to a slow, painful death." She said with a smile on her face while extending a three-fingered paw. "I suggest you take my hand, you attracted a lot of attention, and I can get you out of here and to your home." I hesitated before wiping tears from my eyes, _She's right, there will be time to grieve after Barbamon gets what he deserves_ I reasoned. She flexed her paw as to make it more inviting; I took it.

The next thing I knew we were standing on the roof tiles of my home. I blinked to get my bearings, _weren't we just at the hospital?_ I asked myself. Then I felt my stomach jump to my throat, I keeled over and fell to my knees.

"You okay?" Renamon asked with concern.

"What does it look like!?" I hissed while my body was in turmoil.

She was still for a moment "In hind-sight, it probably was not a good idea to bring an emotionally distraught being phasing the first time." I glared at her from my spot.

"Ya think!?" I managed to croak out before the contents of my stomach decided to liberate themselves… over the side of the roof and into the neighbor's garden. I felt much better after doing that needless to say. "We should probably get inside. We don't want everyone to see you and freak out." I said a little angry at the kitsune. I looked around, climbed down onto the deck, and went inside. When I got to my room, there was a box, runes all over it. When I touched it, all of the runes disappeared and the lid creaked open. Inside there was my digivice and a deck box. I picked both items up and shut the lid, as I did the runes came back onto the box. THIS is where the whole thing hit me like a brick wall. _I have a digivice and a partner, and a deck of cards… HOLY CRAP!_ I thought _I am out for revenge against a Demon lord, whatever they are, and I have the tools to do so, but I can't do it right now. _I dismissed the thoughts of revenge for now; I could focus on them later. I walked back out the living room and saw Renamon sitting politely on the couch.

"So, are you ready to begin?" She asked, thus starting off my time as a guardian.

"Renamon… why are you out for Barbamon's head before you met Krista?" Matthew asked curtly, rubbing his jaw.

"It is simple really; he killed my guardian angel…" She responded before trailing off into thought.

"We'll stop pestering, and let you two rest. Purging your bodies of an omnicidal virus tires one out, even if you were comatose for most of it." I stated in farewell before we left the room, headed to a refugee camp.

**Matthew's POV**

After they left Wepmon looked to be deep in thought, with a scowl on his face.

"What is it?" I prodded tentatively.

"Does it concern you at all that she killed someone who had no ill-intent? Or how angry they both are?" He countered.

"To answer the first part, no I am not. If someone is shot, do you blame the shooter or the gun?" I paused to sort my thoughts, "I know what can be caused by a Dark-Digivolution, you end up with beings like SkullGreymon, Infected Cherubimon, Megadramon, Shinegreymon Ruin mode, etc. but I have faith in them, if the raw emotion is focused, it can yield power greater than mega levels. Don't worry, for now they have it under control and seem to be able to deal with their burdens. Now I am going to get some sleep before tomorrow morning." I stated after glancing at the clock. I saw Wepmon nod and I nodded off before too long.

When the morning light came to the war-torn city, I shot up from my bed and rolled out of it. I twisted my back and rolled my shoulders, waking up my body's muscles. I turned towards Wepmon who was leaning back in a chair, mouth open… snoring.

"How undignified," I muttered, "wake up, we need to come up with a plan." I clapped my hands next to his ear and he shot his head forward. His sky blue eyes opened, slightly.

"Morning already?" He groaned; I glared at him "fine… let's see if the news has anything about the current situation." He moved his chair over to the bed as the TV flickered on.

"… An encampment of enemies are stationed just outside the Fortieth and Pacific avenue chokepoint, we suspect that they are preparing to attack with a large force and overwhelm us. There is not another decent bottleneck set up for another mile down the road..." A soldier being interviewed stated to a reporter. "I can't promise we can hold here, but we will do our best to protect you all." I saw the look on his face, how sad it seemed.

"We will pray for your safe return, Captain Adams. Back to you James." I turned it off when it turned to international news.

"Well, if you were looking for a way to help, this is as good of an opportunity as it gets." He began to meditate into sword mode. I sat back on the bed and waited. I couldn't leave because I had no idea how to get around the hospital, and even then, I would need help to begin. When he was done, I strapped him on as the door opened, and the rest of the group joined us. Travis didn't need his crutches anymore, but his body was still bandaged, Seth had a few patches, and Krista looked unharmed.

"Good morning everyone!" I began as the door closed, "I just awoke to news that an enemy encampment is just outside of the Fortieth-"

"We know that, and you're saying that we are going to take care of it?" Travis interrupted.

"Exactly. Now how do we get out of here and to the location?"

"It is literally a few blocks away. We can't miss it." Krista said smiling to herself.

"If they break through there, not only will this location be compromised, but several other points will be as well, forcing us closer to the center of the city. We will eventually lose this war to the siege." Renamon commented darkly.

"Let's go, we don't have a moment to lose." I stated. Everyone nodded their heads and the digimon got into their partner's digivice. As we began to make the trek through the warzone, I didn't see a people valiantly putting up a resistance to the invaders I saw the cowed faces of an already conquered people, just blowing around like tumbleweeds, waiting for somebody else to save the day. _We will help this city, and I will not allow my world to be taken over by a giant chicken and cat, even if they have god-like powers._ I let these thoughts resonate in my head, psyching myself up for the fight ahead. _I will not be subject to you, or your schemes Pestilence. _I vowed as my eyes narrowed. _Never again_.

**That was a long chapter to write… anyway, while this chapter was mostly the origin story for Krista, the next chapter will move the story along with a bang! **

**Thanks for reading,**

**-Helioslude**


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